This invention is concerned with a dough-flattening apparatus for the preparation of thin pizzas from lumps of flour-dough in the shape of globular lumps or loaves, and more particularly the invention is concerned with a dough-spreading apparatus which can operate completely automatically, so that it can be incorporated in an automated system for preparing and baking pizzas ready for consumption.
WO-IB00/00023, now WO 00/42857, discloses an apparatus wherein globular lumps of newly kneaded dough go through successive handling stations where the lumps are flattened, spread with desired dressings and finally baked. The flattening station is a tray that is brought down onto the dough for flattening, while spinning around to promote flattening. Such a dough-flattening process is only capable of making relatively thick pizzas, and does not easily lend itself to produce thin pizzas, say of only a few millimeters thickness, such as are in agreement with the Italian taste.
Other mechanical devices are also known, by which newly kneaded dough can be spread or flattened to prepare pizzas. Some of them produce a thin, ribbon-shaped sheet, from which a round pizza can be obtained by cutting or trimming; however, a cut edge is less satisfactory than a whole edge, the latter being typical of hand-flattened pizzas made from a small loaf.
The main object of the invention is therefore to provide a dough-spreading apparatus for the preparation of pizzas, which is capable of reducing the dough to a sheet as thin as desired, in a fully automatic way, so that it can be easily incorporated in a system such as disclosed in the above-mentioned WO-IB00/00023, now WO 00/42857.
Another object is to provide such apparatus so that it produces substantially round thin pizzas, without a need for trimming.
Another object is to provide such apparatus so that it produces pizzas having an adjustable thickness.
The invention achieves the above and other objects and advantages, such as will appear from the following disclosure, by a dough-flattening apparatus for the preparation of thin pizzas having the features recited in claim 1.
Other advantageous features of the invention are recited in the subordinate claims.